Gregory Boyd called into question my entire view of dealing with evil and spiritual warfare. Rather than rationalize evil, Boyd encourages us to confront it.

“Jesus never once appeals to a mysterious divine will to explain why a person is sick maimed or deceased. In every instance, He comes against such things as the by-products of a creation that has gone berserk through the evil influence of a satanic army.”[1]

How often have I referred to the mysterious “Will of God” when speaking of evil?

“We see polio or crippling and we piously shake our heads and cuck all the trite absurdities of a non-thinking people by saying ‘it is the will of God… hard to understand… providence writes a long sentence, we have to wait to get to heaven to read the answer’… Jesus looked at this and in crystal clear terms called it the work of the devil, and not the will of God.”[2]